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Feb 22, 2024 · By enhancing your writing with synonyms, avoiding repetitive language, and expanding your vocabulary, you can make your writing more engaging, precise, and impactful. A thesaurus can also help you find the perfect word, overcome writer’s block, and improve your storytelling and professional writing.
- Start with a Word You Know. To begin using a thesaurus, start with a word you already know. Look it up in the thesaurus and see what synonyms and antonyms are listed.
- Look Up Words You Encounter in Reading. When you come across a new word while reading, use a thesaurus to look up synonyms and antonyms. This will help you better understand the word’s meaning and how it is used in different contexts.
- Use Thesaurus to Improve Your Writing. When you’re writing in English, using a thesaurus can help you improve the quality of your writing. Instead of using the same words repeatedly, you can find synonyms that add variety and nuance to your writing.
- Learn Contextual Usage. When you look up a word in a thesaurus, pay attention to the different contexts in which it can be used. This will help you understand not just the meaning of the word but also how to use it correctly in different situations.
- How Not to Use A Thesaurus
- A Case of Synonymomania
- How to Use A Thesaurus to Improve Your Writing
- Finding Your Own Rhythm
When people rail against the thesaurus, they are often lecturing against a specific misuse — that being, looking up a 10-dollar Latinism when dime-store English would suffice. This misuse is typical of writers fearful that an everyday word isn’t sophisticated enough to impress. In a bid to sound more educated, such writers describe apartments as lu...
Ironically, another fear driving writers toward thesaurus misuse is one more writing myth passed around as gospel: to never use the same word twice in a sentence, paragraph, and sometimes page. (The length varies depending on who’s doling out the advice.) H.W. Fowler sarcastically called this the rule of “elegant variation.” Theodore Bernstein refe...
Novelist Martin Amisreaches for his thesaurus when he finds a word has thrown off his rhythm. Perhaps it has created unintentional alliteration, or the syllable count has led a phrase to stop short of pleasing, or a prefix-suffix pairing has bonked together with an audible thud. Whatever the case, Amis will use a thesaurus to find a similar word th...
Of course, a different reader might feel Fox’s use of bibulous to be show-offy. Someone out there may prefer the title Invitation to an Execution. And I’m sure many readers will take issue with the choices I made throughout this article. As with any craft, writing is as much about discovering your own rhythm and voice as it is following a litany of...
Feb 4, 2024 · Synonyms can be a great way to improve your writing, but be sure you don’t lose your meaning and voice by relying too much on a thesaurus. There’s no need to replace every word in a paragraph with a synonym, so start with any words that seem out of place in your writing.
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Mar 22, 2021 · Using a thesaurus is a lot like using a dictionary, look up or type the word you want, and it will provide you with a list of synonyms and usually some antonyms tacked on at the end. Here’s a couple hints for maximizing your thesaurus use.
Dec 27, 2014 · In order to stretch your vocabulary you can use a thesaurus. A thesaurus, like a dictionary, lists words in alphabetical order. Unlike a dictionary, which gives a definition, a thesaurus provides a selection of alternative words for the one you’ve looked up.
Looking up big, fancy words won’t make your writing better. But a thesaurus can help – if you use it like this.
